Discovery of an old tape in Bahir Dar, a tourist hotspot in northern Ethiopia, in 2013 ignited Mergia’s dormant career in the West, capped by Lala Belu, his first new album in decades. Take keyboardist/composer Hailu Mergia, a star in his native Ethiopia in the ’70s who moved to Washington, D.C. But the MP3 blog-turned-label Awesome Tapes From Africa bucked that trend, diligently digging through physical artifacts to discover true gems. Reissues of obscure albums ran rampant this decade, thanks in part to labels following the YouTube algorithms that guided listeners to styles they may have otherwise never found. Listen/Buy: Rough Trade | Apple Music | Tidal This is the latest, greatest Iceage: a bit more romantic but as fiercely droll as ever. Over drunken drums that lead the rest of the band along by a rope, he snarls into the mic, grappling with the very public line of work that’s made him a minor heartthrob among the indie set. The permanently anguished Rønnenfelt offers up a clear example of his dark philosophy in the cabaret stunner “Showtime,” narrating the onstage suicide of a handsome young singer. Beyondless, the quartet’s most recent LP, saw them once again expanding their sound in service of their ever-growing ambition, this time incorporating manic violins, honky-tonk pianos, and, for the first time, a guest vocalist in Sky Ferreira. He was only 18 at the top of the decade, when he and his childhood friends were dubbed the Next Great Punk Band, and across four albums and countless shows, they put in the work needed to uphold the claim. With limbs flailing and sweat matting his hair, Iceage frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt grew up before our eyes. “All you had to do was listen,” she said. Legend has it, she hung up on the first interviewer she spoke to about the record-the question was about Shelton’s new partner, Gwen Stefani-and decided that she would do no press surrounding the album, letting the music speak for itself. For Lambert, redemption comes from buying a cheap pair of plastic sunglasses, by spending late nights alone at the bar, in knowing that she alone controls her destiny. Its songs are torch ballads and highway anthems with a live band that feels borne of late night jam sessions, raw and unglamorous. Her ambitious double album The Weight of These Wings carries on in a grand tradition of messy relationship statements: It has the grit of Tom Petty’s Wildflowers and the uncertainty of Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love, wrapped up in Lambert’s fiery, down-home charm. But when they divorced in 2015, the breakup encouraged her to go down a darker, more existential path. Miranda Lambert: The Weight of These Wings (2016)įor the first half of the decade, Miranda Lambert was a country superstar with a string of radio hits, a recurring spot on The Voice, and a picture-perfect marriage to fellow singer Blake Shelton.
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